Πληρη πρακτικα των συζητησεων

Τετάρτη 29 Νοεμβρίου 2017 - Βρυξέλλες

15. Διάταξη των εργασιών

  President. – Before we come to the order of business, I have three colleagues asking for the floor. Mr Frunzulică, you have a point of order?

  Doru-Claudian Frunzulică (S&D). – Madam President, on 20 November in Kiev, a Forum of the National Minorities in Ukraine took place, including representatives of the Romanian, Hungarian, Polish, Slovakian, Bulgarian, Tatar and Jewish minorities, to discuss the new education law, Article 7 of which forbids the national minorities to educate their children in their mother tongue at all levels. This forum was disrupted by the Swoboda movement, a political party in Ukraine, and they had to be evacuated.

I am asking Parliament to take a position on this important matter and on the Ukrainian authorities’ tolerance of such situations. Ukraine is an associate country of the European Union and has to comply with European values: it has to defend and promote European values, including human rights and the rights of national minorities and their right to education in their national, mother-tongue language.

  Dubravka Šuica (PPE). – Madam President, I would like to speak in my mother tongue.

Gospođo predsjednice, u ovom se trenutku osjećam dužnom obavijestiti ovaj Parlament da je Hrvatski sabor prekinuo zasjedanje, da je bosanskohercegovački sabor prekinuo zasjedanje jer je u tijeku presuda Haškog tribunala za šest bosanskohercegovačkih Hrvata koji su trebali odgovarati po zapovjednoj odgovornosti. Dosuđene su im velike kazne. Međutim, jedan od tih generala, general Praljak, tijekom suđenja u haškoj sudnici, prije pola sata, popio je čašicu otrova i prema kazivanju novinara preminuo je u bolnici u Hagu.

Smatram da ako su ovi parlamenti prekinuli zasjedanje, da sam ja kao hrvatska zastupnica bar dužna vas obavijestiti što se trenutno događa i kakve su odluke Haškog suda u odnosu na događanja za vrijeme rata u Bosni i Hercegovini i činjenice koje su presuđene u odnosu na Hrvatsku osobno smatram apsolutno netočnim.

  President. – Thank you for that important information.

  Sophia in ‘t Veld (ALDE). – Madam President, we all know that political debates can sometimes get very heated and emotional, but I have to say that I was very shocked, even having been in politics for some time, to see the images of a kind of mock hanging of six of our Polish colleagues on the Internet. I am very pleased that President Tajani reacted immediately, and has approached the Polish government and asked it to secure the safety of our six colleagues.

The Prime Minister of Poland has condemned the action. However, in the same breath, she immediately said ‘Oh, but look at the behaviour of your MEPs and how they are making slanderous statements about Poland’. As a matter of fact, her party friend and Vice-President of this House has made similar comments about his colleagues, including myself.

Now there is freedom of speech for everybody, but I would hope that we have a little bit of respect for each other and that President Tajani will press the Polish Government to not just secure the physical integrity of our Polish colleagues but also to ensure freedom of speech, even when we are saying things that they don’t like.

  President. – Thank you very much for that very important statement. As you know, President Tajani is taking action and I think the word ‘respect’ is a word we should perhaps use more often.

  William (The Earl of) Dartmouth (EFDD). – Madam President, on a point of order: just to ask Ms in ‘t Veld if her same commitment to freedom of speech also applies within the European Parliament, not just outside it.

  President. – If I may, colleagues, I am going to answer that question and it is ‘yes’.

  Rebecca Harms (Verts/ALE). – Madam President, I only wanted to add to what our colleague from the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) has said; that for me it was extremely worrying when I saw on social media the pictures of several of our colleagues from Poland – pictures showing our colleagues hanged. I think that this is not at all something that can be covered by freedom of expression. For me, this was more a criminal act, and what we can expect our colleagues in the Bureau to do, including our Vice-President from Poland, is not only to make excuses for this action and their words but also to act against this action, which I see as a criminal action.

  President. – This is a very serious issue. We have taken note and the plenary has given its support to those concerns, which we deeply share. I am now getting more requests for the floor. I really do not want a debate on this issue, but I will give the floor to Mr Krasnodębski.

  Zdzisław Krasnodębski (ECR). – Koledzy niepotrzebnie się martwią, polskie władze zajmują się tą sprawą.

  President. – Thank you for that information.

  Ivo Vajgl (ALDE). – Madam President, we are expressing our solidarity today with several colleagues. I would like to ask the House to show some solidarity with two former Members of the European Parliament who are in jail in Spain. I think we should abandon our conspiracy of being silent as to what is going on there.

  President. – I had mentioned that the final draft agenda was adopted by the Conference of Presidents on 15 November pursuant to Rule 149 and has been distributed. Having consulted the political groups, I propose a number of changes under Rule 149a.

Today, the Commission statement on the Decision adopted on the Fair Taxation package II (item 8 on the final draft agenda) is postponed. A Commission statement on ‘Deadly floods in Attica and disaster relief aid’ is added as a third item.

On Thursday, the report by Jens Geier on the mobilisation of the Contingency Margin in 2017 is included in voting time. The vote on Sofia Sakorafa’s report on the EU-Lebanon Agreement for scientific and technical cooperation: participation of Lebanon in the Partnership for Research and Innovation in the Mediterranean Area (PRIMA) is postponed.

(Parliament approved the changes.)

In addition, for tomorrow, report No A8-0363/2017 by Laura Ferrara has been adopted in Committee on Legal Affairs and has been included in voting time in accordance with Rule 9(9).

The order of business is thus established.